47 RI ministers write letter to Muslim neighbors

5/23/2016

May 20, 2016

Dear Muslim neighbors:

We write at a very troubling time in world history, but with a belief that people of faith can overcome prejudice, can learn to understand each other and respect each other’s honest striving toward God. More than this, we hope that we can develop relationships and learn about each other.

We are grateful for your invitation to visit mosques in the area. This can certainly help with relationships and self-education.

We are deeply saddened by all instances of bigotry and violence, but they do not deter us from what is always good: people of different faiths learning to respect each others’ hunger for God, and yearning for peace. We hope to meet with you and to talk about what we can do together to grow understanding between ourselves and then the wider community.

We are grateful for the opportunities to visit that we have already taken, and look forward to furthering our relationships with you.

Sincerely,

The Rhode Island Ministers’ Association of the United Church of Christ
(signed by the following 47 Authorized Ministers in the Rhode Island Conference of the United Church of Christ)

Users of this website are invited to post comments in response to news articles and blog posts published here. In order to maintain a respectful community, we insist that comments be polite, respectful and tolerant of opposing viewpoints. We reserve the right to remove comments that are hostile, hateful or abusive to others, or that constitute personal attacks. In the interest of transparency, we highly recommend that users comment using their full names. For those who feel a need for more anonymity, however, we will allow posts using first names and last initial.